Driven to Snack: Simulated Driving Increases Subsequent Consumption

Abstract

When individuals eat while distracted, they may compensate by consuming more afterwards. Here, we examined the effect of eating while driving, and explored potential underlying mechanisms. Participants (N = 116, 73.3% female) were randomly allocated to complete a driving simulation (distraction condition) or to watch someone else drive (control condition) while consuming 10g (50.8 kcal) of potato chips. Afterwards, participants rated the taste intensity and hedonic experience, reported stress levels, and were then given the opportunity to eat more chips. As hypothesized, participants consumed more chips after the driving simulation. Stress levels were higher in the driving compared to control condition, but were inversely related to consumption amount, ruling out stress as explanatory mechanism. Saltiness ratings differed between the driving and passive viewing condition, only when controlling for stress. The current findings converge with earlier work showing that distracted eating can drive overconsumption, which in turn can lead to long-term health implications. Limitations, implications and potential directions are discussed.

Underwhelming pleasures: Toward a self-regulatory account of hedonic compensation and overconsumption.

“…For instance, this link has been proposed to exist because being distracted renders people forgetful of personal health goals (e.g., to eat healthily; Tapper, 2017), less aware of satiation signals (Tapper, 2017), and less able to remember what (and how much) was eaten during a previous consumption episode (Higgs & Spetter, 2018). While the distracted eating research documented thus far has been valuable, distracted (over)eating has not yet been mechanistically connected to hedonic compensation (though for preliminary evidence, see van der Wal & van Dillen, 2013; van Meer, Murphy, et al, 2023). The distracted eating literature also overlooks the possibility that the distraction-consumption link is part of a larger story that involves all consumption domains (e.g., food, drink, gaming).…”

“…Our secondary aim is to show that this tendency to compensate for a hedonic shortfall helps explain a widely reported effect in extant literature-the effect whereby distraction during food consumption promotes increased food consumption (Gonçalves et al, 2019;Higgs & Spetter, 2018;S. Marsh et al, 2013;Ogden et al, 2013;Robinson et al, 2013;van Meer, Murphy, et al, 2023). Much effort has been invested to better understand why distraction promotes increased food consumption (Higgs & Spetter, 2018;Tapper, 2017;van der Wal & van Dillen, 2013;van Dillen & van Steenbergen, 2018).…”